Guidelines to reduce C-section births urge waiting

Show more patience in the delivery room: That's the prescription being given to the nation's obstetricians. New guidelines say doctors should give otherwise healthy women more time to deliver their babies vaginally before assuming that labor has stalled. The recommendations are the latest in years of efforts to prevent unnecessary C-sections. "Labor takes a little longer than we may have thought," said Dr. Aaron Caughey, who co-authored the guidelines for the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. The recommendations are being published jointly Thursday by two groups of pregnancy specialists — ACOG and the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine — amid growing concern that C-sections are overused.